​Paths Are Made By Walking: Guri and Nipun Mehta's Walking Pilgrimage in India​

I shifted in my chair for a long time, not knowing how to start describing this pilgrimage and the pilgrims. For those who know Guri and Nipun Mehta, their life and their many (ongoing) pilgrimages need no description. For those aren't yet familiar with their values, I don't feel I can do justice through words to convey the depth of their inspiration and cultivation.

With that disclaimer/preemptive apology, here is a glimpse into Guri and Nipun's 2005 walking pilgrimage in India :)

In Spring 2005, six months into their marriage, the 30-year-old couple, Guri and Nipun, left the comfort and success of their Bay Area lives -- already a life of service then -- to go on an open-ended walking pilgrimage in India.

Nipun wrote, "On March 31st, Guri and I started walking from the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad. We went south towards Chicodara, circled around Baroda, headed to Vedchi, before marching in the Mumbai direction. After about 1000 kilometers of walking, we stayed at a meditation retreat for three months in Igatpuri."

"Living on dollar a day, eating wherever food is offered, sleeping wherever a flat surface is found, ours was an unscripted spiritual pilgrimage to greet life in the farthest corners of our own consciousness. As we walked, we learned much about India, a lot about humanity and most about the stranger we call 'I'."

Speaking of the primary purpose of the pilgrimage, "To live in a space greater than our ego. We know it exists, and that it is within us, but we need to cultivate our awareness so we can first experience the change we wish to see in the world. This is our primary purpose. Our secondary purpose is to bring light to good people in remote corners of the world, in the hopes that it helps other people come alive."

A journalist asked the couple, "You asked people you met on your trip, 'What do you pray for?' and posted their answers on your blog. So let me put that same question to you: What do you both pray for?"

Guri said, "I pray for having the strength to face whatever life throws at me and to use everything in a positive way. Whether it's the challenges of facing somebody who doesn't have the same values as I do or whether it's something positive -- that I'm able to use whatever skills I have for the positive good of everyone around me."

Nipun answered, "I pray that I always have the courage and the humility and the love to greet each moment with reverence, and realize that this is the door through which I will grow. And that's a hard thing to do when you are in the face of danger sometimes. It's hard to do when you are uncomfortable. It's a hard thing to do when you have walked 40 kilometers and you are hungry. And we had many of those times."

Nipun, Guri and their friends have diligently and methodically compiled the journal entries from the pilgrimage, so I will just point to the rich repository of inspirations.

The hub of the pilgrimage's online presence, hosted on Nipun's website, with links to all the journal entries, and an eye/heart-opening FAQ. Here are some of the entries that especially moved me:

Guri's (legacy) blog containing her journal entries from the pilgrimage. And here are the journals entries from Guri's 2010 pilgrimage walking along the Camino de Santiago, for 37 days and 900 kilometers.